Singapore – Grab Finance has expanded access to credit services across Southeast Asia through the deployment of the FICO Platform to support lending operations in six countries. The implementation includes more than 22 automated decision workflows applied across Grab’s driver, merchant and passenger segments, contributing to a significant rise in credit eligibility while serving a user base of over 46 million across the region.
The FICO Platform is used to support credit assessments that incorporate in-app behavioural indicators such as trip activity, merchant revenue patterns and repayment behaviour. These data sources supplement limited or non-existent traditional credit records and enable the delivery of pre-approved credit offers across Grab’s ecosystem, operating in accordance with local financial regulations and data protection requirements in each market.
“Grab saw a strategic opportunity to make financing in Southeast Asia more accessible by leveraging our superapp ecosystem and behavioural data,” Andre Tan, Regional Head, Lending Risk Platforms at Grab Finance, shared.
“Using FICO Platform, we can deliver contextual, real-time credit offers across multiple verticals within the Grab super app. This enables us to expand financial inclusion by providing credit access for underserved users who are economically active but often overlooked by traditional lenders.”
Southeast Asia has a large population with restricted access to formal financial services, particularly among individuals and small enterprises without established credit bureau histories. Grab Finance developed alternative risk assessment models to address this structural gap, using digital transaction data generated within its platform to evaluate lending eligibility for economically active users who are typically underserved by conventional lenders.
“What Grab Finance has accomplished here is remarkable. They’ve essentially turned everyday digital behaviour into a credit passport for millions of people who were previously invisible to traditional banking,” Nikhil Behl, president, software at FIC, stated.
“When a taxi driver in Jakarta can get credit based on their ride patterns, or a food merchant in Bangkok can access working capital through their delivery history, that’s not just innovation, it’s economic transformation at scale.”
The platform is designed to accommodate differences in national regulatory and compliance frameworks while maintaining a consistent approach to credit decisioning at a regional level.
